


Love

by meyari



Series: Hospitality [10]
Category: DCU - Comicverse, Smallville
Genre: Harems, Multi, Slavery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-08
Updated: 2011-06-08
Packaged: 2017-10-20 06:17:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/209658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meyari/pseuds/meyari
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While Hal and Steve talk, Lord Bruce and Princess Diana talk as well.  They're somewhat surprised that they have more similarities than differences given how vastly different their lives and cultures are.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love

Diana deliberately steered her apparently casual stroll back to the room where Steve and his friend Hal talked. Lord Bruce didn't appear to mind and in fact said not one word as Diana opened the door a crack so that she could peek inside and see what was happening with her Consort.

"What happened?" Hal was saying as he caressed Steve's cheeks so tenderly that Diana's heart swelled for Steve. "The last I heard your ship was late getting back to port and then we heard that it was lost with all hands."

Steve laughed the breathless little laugh that always came after he'd been kissed senseless, which made Diana raise a hand so that she wouldn't laugh and disturb the two of them. While she hadn't expected that they would encounter Hal here, she was delighted that they had. Her intention had always been to ensure that Steve was reunited with his friend and lover. It was so good to see that the time apart hadn't damaged their relationship.

"You know how it is," Steve said while kissing Hal in quick little presses of his lips over Hal's face, throat and then down his chest. "Regular trip." Kiss. "Big storm hits." Kiss. "Ship sinks." Kiss much lower, down by Hal's belt buckle. "Wake up to an angel with blue eyes and black hair. Fall in love. Get declared the angel's consort. You know."

"Steve…" Hal's voice was hot and deep, containing all the urgency that Diana knew that men felt when aroused but all the tenderness she was used to seeing from other women.

She eased the door shut and smiled brightly at Lord Bruce who looked as though he was concerned or perhaps surprised by what they had overheard. Rather than immediately answer him and risk disturbing Steve's reunion, Diana pointed inquiringly down the hallway towards a door out to the garden. Lord Bruce nodded and led the way out into the strangely formal landscape behind his Manor.

"That's not a problem, is it?" Lord Bruce asked once they were well away from the building.

"Not at all," Diana answered with a wry smile that got an answering smirk. "You see, the only relationship among the three of us that is scandalous to my people is taking Steve as my Consort. For Steve to have another male that he is intimate with is considered right and normal. Is it a problem here?"

"Not… too much so," Lord Bruce said, clearly considering his words before he said them. "If they were of equal rank, both Lords, yes, it would be something of an issue. As Steve is of lower rank, or perhaps higher now that he's your consort, it is something that would be noticed but not commented on. I suspect that people will expect you to be quite upset about it."

"How odd," Diana said. "I can't imagine being upset by it. Steve has spoken many times of how much Hal means to him, of what they shared. I would never dream of denying him that or any other love that he truly desired."

She gasped as they topped a hill and suddenly came up on a cliff over the ocean. The day was bright and clear so they could see for miles out to sea. It reminded her strongly of home, though the surf was much harsher and the wind much cooler than Themysciria or Paradise Island. From Lord Bruce's quiet chuckle, he'd anticipated her reaction and was pleased by her response.

"Beautiful," Diana said as she breathed in the sea air. "I had not realized that we were so close to the ocean."

"We have to reinforce the cliff on a regular basis," Lord Bruce said. "Otherwise the sea would be much closer to the mansion than it already is. When I was a boy, the cliff was a few hundred yards further away from here. There was a small earthquake several years ago and a large chunk of land slid into the ocean."

"Lord Poseidon will always win in the end," Diana said, though she nodded at his explanation. "He is too strong for the earth to stand against him."

"Mmm." Lord Bruce's eyes were on the distant horizon when Diana turned to look at him.

He seemed to be very far away, considering something quite important to him from the expression. Rather than interrupt his thoughts, Diana turned back to the sea for a long moment. When she checked again, Lord Bruce's expression had gone dark, as if his thoughts had taken an angry turn. Diana chuckled and decided to distract him from his thoughts. She took to the air, flying down to swoop over the ocean. Spray dampened her long formal skirt, making her wish that she had her battle armor on instead but it hardly mattered. The skirt would dry and Diana wished to fly for a bit.

When she flew back up to hover over Lord Bruce, one knee lifted to pat her skirt to see how long it would take to dry, Lord Bruce's breath caught so sharply that she landed instead. He swallowed hard, searching her face for something though she had no idea what it might be.

"Where did you come from?" Lord Bruce asked.

"I am not sure I understand the question, Lord Bruce," Diana said, checking her skirt and nodding that it would only take a few minutes in the sun to dry. "I came from our island. You know that."

"No, you… as a baby, did you come from somewhere else?" Lord Bruce asked with enough urgency that she answered him seriously.

"I am afraid not," Diana said. "I was born to my mother, Queen Hippolyta, just as any other child would be. Why?"

"Superman… flies like you, is strong as an Amazon, and that pose… is very similar to one that he uses," Lord Bruce said very reluctantly.

"Ah, you wonder if there might be a relationship there," Diana breathed. "Set your mind to rest on that point, Lord Bruce. Our powers come from our Goddess, Aphrodite, not from any other source. I fly because I am her chosen warrior, the best warrior of all the Amazons. It is a special gift given to me by Hermes at Aphrodite's request. Males are never Amazonian warriors. If Superman has similar powers then I'm afraid that they must come from different sources."

"He's called Son of the Sun," Lord Bruce murmured. "We've never been sure…"

Diana nodded and started slowly wandering back towards the Manor, Lord Bruce at her side. She could see that. The Gods were quite free with themselves and Diana knew personally that their half-breed children could be very powerful indeed.

"Cassandra is Zeus's daughter," Diana said and then smiled at Lord Bruce's sharp glance. "My sister Donna is the offspring of the Titans, who came before our gods. It is not unheard of, though it is quite rare for such children to grow up unnoticed. They are frequently the prey of those who would gain power through illegitimate means."

"He's… faced quite a lot of that from King Lionel," Lord Bruce growled in a tone that would do Hades, the God of the Underworld, proud. "Keeping him safe has been a struggle. King Lionel will do anything to increase his power, anything at all."

This time it was Diana's turn for a sharp glance. They had received King Lionel's offer of parlay and an alliance at much the same time that they had Lord Bruce's. Steve had advised them of King Lionel's character compared to Lord Bruce's much less troubling reputation. After her mother had sent several spies who confirmed Steve's information, his advice had been accepted by the Amazons, rather to Diana's surprise. The automatic assumption that a male had little to offer on political matters was hard to overcome for most of her country folk, both male and female.

"You fear that he will try and ensnare us," Diana observed.

"Not so much you but Princess Donna and Cassandra yes," Lord Bruce said with a black scowl. "He has tried to take every gifted young person in the country by one means or the other. Tim is my slave specifically to protect him from King Lionel. All of my boys are in the harem because they were targeted by King Lionel in one way or another."

"I see," Diana murmured. "I will keep that in mind, though I think he would find my girls much more of a challenge than he's prepared for. I take it that Clark is Superman, then?"

Lord Bruce's start of astonishment and total alarm was so dramatic that Diana couldn't help but laugh. Perhaps her observation was a bit less obvious than she'd thought, given that Lord Bruce looked as though he wanted to question her to determine who had let the secret slip.

"You were looking for resemblances and Superman is quite the burly man," Diana explained with a grin that grew as Lord Bruce's cheeks slowly flushed. "The only member of your household that I have seen that could match to Superman is your slave Clark. It seemed quite obvious to me."

"Hopefully not to anyone else," Lord Bruce growled.

"I doubt that it is obvious at all," Diana said. She spotted Donna and Dick hanging out one of the library windows and frowned. "Should he be doing that? His bruise looked quite severe."

"No, he shouldn't," Lord Bruce sighed. "That boy. He's always getting into trouble from sheer exuberance."

"One moment," Diana said.

She flew over and hovered in front of Dick and Donna, frowning at him through his gasp of startlement, awe and then complete delight in the fact that she could fly. Behind the two teens, Tim and Cassie cuddled together on a couch, a book in Cassie's hands as if she had been reading aloud. Diana let the silence stretch long enough for Donna to tug Dick back into the room, her cheeks red.

"I do not believe that you should be hanging out windows in that fashion," Donna said to Dick. His cheeks flamed so brilliantly that she had to fight against a smile. "Donna, do keep him from doing too much. That wound looks quite severe and I think that Dick should probably be taking things easy."

"I will," Donna promised as her cheeks went nearly as red as Dick's.

"Good," Diana said. She nodded to them and then had to fight a laugh as Tim mouthed the words 'thank you!' behind Dick and Donna's backs. "You may carry on, just with a bit less activity, I think."

She flew back down to Lord Bruce's side, chuckling and shaking her head at the lot of them. There was an amused smile on Lord Bruce's lips that nearly matched Diana's. Rather than say anything, Lord Bruce gestured for them to reenter the Manor together. Inside, there were several servants, including two female warriors in ordinary clothes that Diana rather thought would do well as Amazons, if circumstances were different. Lord Bruce nodded to them and led Diana to an office that looked well used.

"It must be strange to be so strong and yet so confined," Diana mused as she sat in one of the offered chairs. "I cannot imagine being constrained to a slave's life when I had such power."

"He is particularly vulnerable to magic," Lord Bruce murmured. "His strength is incredible, as are his other senses, but magic strikes to his core and strips everything from him if we're not careful. King Lionel… has used that against us many times."

Diana nodded and studied the strange bat-shaped paperweight in Lord Bruce's hands. "We do not have that particular weakness, so I think your theory is probably incorrect. Superman's powers must come from a different source. I do hope that you have a good healer. It's quite difficult to restrain my strength with Steve at times and I have injured him on occasion. I try not to be overprotective of him. He is very strong for a man and does not need me to defend him against everything that life throws his way."

"We haven't had too many issues with injuries," Lord Bruce chuckled. "Clark is much more comfortable with a submissive role than a more active one. I do have the same problem balancing the urge to protect and the need to let him free. In our private lives I can protect him but when he's in Superman's armor… it's harder."

"He must balance being a warrior and leader with his more gentle side," Diana said, nodding that she understood. "Your message only stated that you wished to speak to us. Was there more that you hoped to accomplish other than warning us of King Lionel's true nature."

Lord Bruce took the abrupt change of topic smoothly, setting aside his paperweight to study her closely. This time the examination was less of her face and more of what he could see of her character. Diana let him look to his heart's content. While she did not believe that a person's face showed their inner nature, there were those who could read much from a person's body, posture and behavior. She would not be surprised to find that Lord Bruce was one who had perfected the art.

"There are others like Clark and I who are fighting behind secret identities," Lord Bruce explained after several long moments of contemplation. "We've banded together to try and stop King Lionel. His effect on our country and the world has been very negative. It is our… hope… that we can form an alliance with your people. Amazon warriors would be a great help if this comes to open warfare. Lionel's secret troops are quite formidable and no one has ever been able to catch one for questioning. We do not know how he recruits them or how he trains them to be such ferocious warriors."

"I see," Diana said.

This time she was the one studying Lord Bruce. Everything that Steve has said of him appeared to be true. He was a good man, strict and stern but fair in all of his dealings. He was surprisingly intelligent for the rumors that Steve had reported but then Steve had not believed those rumors about Lord Bruce. Add in the gentle and protective treatment of his boys in the harem, the concern he had displayed not only for Diana but also for Steve when they overheard Steve and Hal's reunion, and Diana thought that she might have a good measure of the man.

"That was part of why we were sent here," Diana admitted. "My mother does not trust King Lionel and has seen many of the same things that you have. Steve's tales of the changes in the country since King Lionel took over worried many of us. I will have to talk to Donna and Cassandra, report back to my mother, but I think that an alliance will be very easy to arrange. No matter what, we will not support King Lionel. His policies directly contradict several of our core laws."

Lord Bruce let out a tiny breath that was practically a huge sigh of relief for a man like him. He smiled and nodded.

"That said," Diana continued before he could, "I think that it would be good for Donna to spend some time among men. If we do arrange the alliance, I would like to have her come to live here or perhaps with one of your allies."

"I think that we can work something out," Lord Bruce said, this time with a sly smile that made his eyes dance with amusement. "Lord Oliver and I have been discussing something very similar for Dick and one of his archers, Roy Harper. Including Donna in the arrangement would be a good thing. We might be able to convince several other lords to help out as well."

"Really?" Diana asked. "I would love to know exactly what you're thinking of doing."

"We haven't worked out all the details yet," Lord Bruce said, "but once we have I would be happy to include you in the project."

"I look forward to hearing all about it," Diana said. She looked out the window for a moment and then at the clock adorning Lord Bruce's wall. "I think enough time has passed for Steve and Hal to have completed their reunion and gotten cleaned up. Perhaps we can rejoin them and then collect the young ones?"

"Lunch?" Lord Bruce asked as he stood and offered her a hand.

Diana laughed as she took that hand. She hardly needed the assistance but the gesture wasn't unwelcome. Her Steve frequently did the same thing.

"Lunch would be delightful," Diana said. "Especially if there are, what did Steve call them? Sandwiches. That was the word. He has spoken many times of the delights of sandwiches and I must admit I'm quite curious about them. We do not have anything that matches that dish according to Steve."

Lord Bruce's laugh was a thing of delight, full and as open as the clear blue sky. It was apparently as rare as lightning striking twice because the servants in the hallway looked as though the world might be ending when they heard it. Diana laughed with him, holding her arms out as Steve appeared out of the drawing room with Hal behind him.

"Making friends, Angel?" Steve asked as he hugged her and then gently kissed her cheek.

"I believe so," Diana said and smiled just for him. "I believe so."


End file.
